site.btaHighly Skilled Bulgarians with International Background Steadily Tend to Come Back Home

Sofia, September 5 (BTA) - The annual Career in Bulgaria Forum has found that highly skilled Bulgarians who have amassed experience abroad steadily tend to come back home.

The 10th Career in Bulgaria Forum, the largest job fair for Bulgarians with international experience, was organized in Sofia on Tuesday by the Identity for Bulgaria Foundation and the Here and There Association. The forum is the first event to take place in this country under the exclusive auspices of the European Parliament and with the support of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad. The idea is to enable Bulgarians with an international background to make an informed choice of professional and personal realization in their home country.

Bulgarians with experience acquired in over 85 countries have visited the forum since its inception. Most participants come from Western Europe and the US: the UK (23 per cent), Germany (16 per cent), the US (14 per cent), the Netherlands (12 per cent), and France (10 per cent).

According to Mariela Stanoulova of the forum's organizers, ever more Bulgarians find career opportunities in this country, and demand for highly skilled human resources is steadily growing on the local labour market. "The increasing number of returnees is a positive indication that Bulgaria's potential to provide worthwhile opportunities for career development and life is improving," Stanoulova believes.

Over the ten years since the forum was launched, its organizers have detected a steady tendency of Bulgarians, who have left to study or work abroad, coming back and pursuing a career in their home country. Of all participants who visited the forum between 2009 and 2017, an average 58 per cent have already returned to Bulgaria, 18 per cent have said they will return, and 24 per cent are hesitant.

"At the forum and throughout the year we support Bulgarians who opt to return to this country, connecting them to employers, providing them with information, creating a social environment and chances to share experience and establish contacts," says Mila Natoudova of the organizers. "We find a positive development in the fact that one in three of the participants in the forum who have said that they are hesitant about returning have said at a subsequent edition of the forum that they will return or have already done so," she points out.

More than 1,500 applicants meet with employers every year. Over 100 employer companies attend the forum in 2017, and many of them participate in the event every year, building entire teams of Bulgarians with professional background abroad. Employers regard such personnel as more responsible, enterprising, multilingual and adaptive. For their part, such applicants believe that they will have chances for faster career development in Bulgaria and will be more competitive on the labour market, and they also keep in mind opportunities to start their own business.

During last year's forum, 70 per cent of the participants found an employer they like, and 94 per cent of the employers found people they would hire, the organizers said.